Modified Baccarat Card Game

ABSTRACT

There is disclosed a method of playing a modified baccarat card game involving a dealer and a banker, who may be the same person or may be one or more computing devices, and at least one player. At least one player may make a wager on PLAYER, BANKER, or TIE. Two cards may be dealt to each of a PLAYER hand and a BANKER hand, one of the BANKER cards being dealt face down. The PLAYER hand may or may not receive a third card depending on the value of the modulo  10  sum of the first two cards dealt to the PLAYER hand and, in some circumstances, elections by each player individually.

NOTICE OF COPYRIGHTS AND TRADE DRESS

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialwhich is subject to copyright protection. This patent document may showand/or describe matter which is or may become trade dress of the owner.The copyright and trade dress owner has no objection to the facsimilereproduction by anyone of the patent disclosure as it appears in thePatent and Trademark Office patent files or records, but otherwisereserves all copyright and trade dress rights whatsoever.

BACKGROUND

1. Field

This disclosure relates to card games which are particularly suitablefor use in gaming establishments.

2. Description of the Related Art

Baccarat is a gambling card game player for profit or enjoyment. Thereare three traditional variants of baccarat: baccarat chemin de fer,baccarat banque, and punto banco (or North American baccarat). Puntobanco is strictly a game of chance, with no skill or strategy involved.Each player's moves are forced by the cards the player is dealt. Inbaccarat chemin de fer and baccarat banque, however, players can makechoices, which makes baccarat chemin de fer and baccarat banque games ofskill, at least in part.

Baccarat is a simple game with only three possible results—“PLAYER”,“BANKER” and “TIE”. The term “PLAYER” refers to one of two hands thatare dealt, and does not refer to a customer or participant in the game.Similarly, the term “BANKER” refers to the second dealt hand, and doesnot refer to the house or the actual banker who settles wagers. A wageron PLAYER is a bet that the PLAYER hand will be superior to the BANKERhand. The method for evaluating hands will be explained subsequently. Awager on BANKER is a bet that the BANKER hand will be superior to thePLAYER hand. A wager on TIE is a bet that the two hands will have equalvalue. The participants may wager on any of the three results.

For clarity, within this description, the upper case word “PLAYER” willbe used to refer to the dealt hand and the corresponding bet, and thelower case “player” will refer to any one of the participants in thegame. Similarly, the upper case word “BANKER” will be used to refer tothe dealt hand and the corresponding bet, and the lower case “banker”will refer to the party that settles the wagers with the players. Forconsistency, the upper case word “TIE” will refer to the wager that thePLAYER and BANKER hands will have the same value.

In each of the traditional baccarat variants, the PLAYER hand is dealttwo cards face up and the BANKER hand is dealt one card face down and asecond card face up. The PLAYER hand and the BANKER hand then may eachreceive a third card. In punto banco, whether or not the PLAYER hand andthe BANKER hand receive a third card is dictated strictly by the rulesof the game. In the other baccarat variants, the participants in thegame may elect to receive or not receive a third card in somecircumstances. Following common black-jack and baccarat terminology,electing to receive a third card will be called “taking a hit”, andelecting to not receive a third card with be called “standing”.

In baccarat, cards 2-9 are worth face value, 10's and face cards (jack,queen, king) are worth zero, and aces are worth 1 point. The score of ahand is calculated by taking the sum of all cards modulo 10. Simply,when the total value of cards in a hand equals or exceeds 10, the tensdigit is dropped. For example, a hand consisting of 2 and 3 is worth 5(2+3=5). A hand consisting of 6 and 7 is worth 3 (6+7=13≡3)—the firstdigit is dropped because the total is higher than 10. A hand consistingof 4 and 6 is worth zero (4+6≡0). The highest score that can be achievedis 9.

Casinos and other gaming establishments continually offer new games totheir clientele. Many popular games, including baccarat, enable eachplayer to play against a banker, rather than against other players. In acasino, the banker, who may also function as the dealer, may be anemployee playing on behalf of the establishment. Alternatively, in a“card room” game each player may have the option to act as banker, orthe banker may be a licensed third-party service provider or the bankermay be a player trust or pool fund. The card room establishment mayprovide a dealer to manage the game and collect fees from the players.

Players typically enjoy games which can be played rapidly and whichoffer players some degree of participation or require some degree ofskill.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a flow chart of a method of playing a card game.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a table.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a computing device.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Throughout this description, the embodiments and examples shown shouldbe considered as exemplars, rather than limitations on the apparatus andmethods disclosed or claimed.

Description of Processes

A modified baccarat card game may be played using one or more (commonlyfour to eight) conventional 52-card decks of playing cards plus at leastone Joker. For example, one Joker may be used when the game is playedwith four or six decks of playing cards and two jokers may be used ifthe game is played with eight decks of playing cards. The game may beplayed by a dealer, a banker, and at least one additional player. Thedealer and the banker may, in some circumstances, be the same person, ormay be a computing device. One or more of the additional players mayalso be a computing device. The banker may be an employee of the casinoor card club, a licensed third-party service provider, or one of theplayers participating in the game. The roll of the banker may rotateamong the players, with each player being the banker for a fixed numberof hands. The dealer may be the banker, or may be an employee of thecasino or card club establishment who supervises the game and collectsfees or commissions for the establishment.

The modified baccarat game can be played on any surface that allows thecards to be shuffled and dealt. A casino or card club may provide aspecialized table having markings that define the player locations andthe positions on the table for the players to place their bets andcollections.

Referring now to FIG. 1, a flow chart of a method for playing a modifiedbaccarat game begins at 110 where one or more players may place bets,and ends at 180 where the bets may be settled. The bets are settled bythe banker collecting the bets of players who have lost and paying offon the bets of players who have won. While each hand has a beginning at110 and an end at 180, the process is cyclic. A completed hand may befollowed by another hand, and this may occur in rapid succession.

At 110, each player may place a bet on either BANKER or PLAYER. Eachplayer may also place a bet on TIE, either with or without a concurrentBANKER or PLAYER bet. After all bets are placed, the dealer may deal twocards to the PLAYER hand and two cards to the BANKER hand. The cards maybe dealt alternately to the BANKER and PLAYER hands. The PLAYER cardsmay be dealt face up, and the BANKER cards may be dealt with one cardface up and the other card, commonly called the “hole card”, face downsuch that the value of the card is not apparent to the players.

The PLAYER hand may be completed at 130 before the BANKER's hole card isexposed or turned face up. The PLAYER hand may be evaluated at 135 bycalculating the sum, modulo ten, of the two dealt cards. A jack, queen,or king has a value of zero. A joker may have any value from 0 to 9, andmay be assigned the value that makes the hand value equal to nine. Thesteps taken to complete the PLAYER hand may vary depending on the sumcomputed at 135. If the sum is within a first range, the PLAYER hand mayhave to be dealt a third card. If the sum is within a second range, thePLAYER hand may have to “stand” with that value. If the sum is within athird range, each player who has bet on PLAYER may have the option oftaking a hit or standing. The first range may be 0-3, or some otherrange. The second range may be 7-9, or some other range. The third rangemay be 4-6, or some other range. If at least one player takes the optionof a hit, a third card may be dealt.

The value, or score, of the PLAYER hand may be established at 150. Ifthe sum calculated at 135 was in the first range, the value of thePLAYER hand is the modulo ten sum of all three cards dealt to the PLAYERhand. If the sum calculated at 135 was in the second range, the value ofthe PLAYER hand is the modulo ten sum of the two cards dealt to thePLAYER hand. If the sum calculated at 135 was in the third range, thevalue of the PLAYER hand is either the modulo ten sum of the two cardsinitially dealt to the PLAYER hand for players who elected to notreceive a third card, or the modulo ten sum of all three cards dealt tothe PLAYER hand for those players who elected to receive the third card.

After the value of the PLAYER hand is established at 150, the BANKERhand may be completed at 160. The BANKER hole card may be exposed andthe BANKER hand may be evaluated at 165 by taking the sum, modulo ten,of the two dealt cards. The decision whether or not to hit the BANKERhand may be dictated by the rules of the modified baccarat game. If thesum of the cards in the BANKER hand is within a fourth range, the BANKERhand may be dealt a third card. In this case, the value of the BANKERhand may be the modulo ten sum of the three cards dealt to the BANKERhand. If the sum of the two original cards in the BANKER hand is withina fifth range, the BANKER hand may have to “stand” with that value. Thefourth range may be 0-5 or some other range. The fifth range may be 6-9or some other range.

At 180, the bets are settled. If the PLAYER hand has a higher value thanthe BANKER hand, bets on the PLAYER may be paid even money by thebanker, and bets on the BANKER are won by the banker. If the BANKER handhas a higher value than the PLAYER hand, bets on the PLAYER may be wonby the banker, and bets on the BANKER may be paid even money. If theBANKER and PLAYER hands have the same value, bets on the BANKER and thePLAYER may receive “no action” (the original bets are retained by theplayers), and bets on TIE may be paid at some odds, such aseight-to-one. In circumstances where the PLAYER hand received a thirdcard, only the first two cards are used to determine the results of TIEbets. To provide increased incentive for players to assume the bankerroll, the banker may be allowed to win both BANKER and PLAYER bets insome circumstances, such as ties with a value of zero or one.

When the roll of banker is filled by one of the players, theplayer-banker may have a finite “stake”, or amount of money that he iswilling or able to risk on any given hand. In this case, the banker'sstake may be smaller than the total amount wagered by the other playersparticipating in the game, and the banker may not be able to “cover”, orpay off, all of the bets made by the other players. To ensure fairness,the “action”, or settlement of wagers, may start with a different playeron each hand and proceed in a predetermined order, such as clockwise,around the table until the accumulated total of the bets made equals orexceeds the banker's stake. Players whose bets are not covered by thedealer's stake receive “no action”, which is to say that they retaintheir original wager regardless of how they bet or the values of thehands.

The position on the table where the settlement of wagers begins may bedesignated by a marker, commonly called an “action button”. The positionof the action button may move progressively around the table, or may beset randomly for each hand. For example, the dealer may roll dice at thestart of each hand to determine the location of the action button forthat hand, as in conventional baccarat. Alternatively, the position ofthe action button may be determined by the value of the BANKER holecard.

For example, the table where the modified baccarat game is played mayhave positions for eight players, one of whom may be acting as theplayer-banker. If the BANKER hole card is a joker or seven, the actionbutton may be placed in front of the player to the player-banker's left.If the BANKER hole card is an ace or an eight, the action button may beplaced in front of the second player to the player-banker's left. Thisprocess may be extended for the remaining cards such that the actionbutton may be placed in front of the player to the player-banker's rightif the hole card is a king or a six.

Description of Apparatus

A modified baccarat game may be played at a table such as the exemplarytable shown in FIG. 2. The table may be semicircular, as illustrated, orsome other shape. The dealer 210 may be positioned at the mid-point of aflat side of the table or at some other location. The exemplary tableshown in FIG. 2 can accommodate eight players in addition to the dealer.A table may accommodate more or fewer players. The players may be seatedor standing. A banker, if required, may be in one of the playerpositions, such as immediately to the right of the dealer. The roll ofbanker may rotate among the players.

A table may have markings in front of the dealer's position to indicatewhere the cards constituting the PLAYER hand and the BANKER hand are tobe placed. The exemplary table 200 is marked with three boxes 220 forthe PLAYER hand. These boxes are labeled “Up”, “Up”, and “Hit” forconvenience of description, but such markings may not be present on thetable. The two cards dealt to the PLAYER face-up may be placed in the“Up” boxes. The hit card, if dealt, may be placed in the “Hit” box.Similarly, three boxes 230 may be marked on the table to indicate wherethe cards constituting the BANKER hand may be placed. These boxes arelabeled “Up”, “Dn”, and “Hit” for convenience of description, but suchmarkings may not be present on the table. The one card dealt to theBANKER face-up may be placed in the “Up” box. The one card dealt to theBANKER face down, or the hole card, may be placed in the “Dn” box. Thehit card, if dealt, may be placed in the “Hit” box.

A table may be marked at each player's position to indicate where betsshould be placed. The exemplary table 200 shown in FIG. 2 is marked withthree “betting circles” in front of each player. The circles may bemarked “P”, “T”, and “B” or “PLAYER”, “TIE”, and “BANKER”, to indicatebets on PLAYER, TIE, or BANKER, respectively. The size of these circlesis exaggerated in FIG. 2 for clarity. Other markings or shapes may beused to indicate where each player should place their bets. A table mayalso have markings to indicate if a player, having made a BANKER bet,has elected to take a hit or stand if the first two BANKER cards total4, 5, or 6. For example, upon the player indicating a desire to take ahit, the player or the dealer may move the player's PLAYER bet from thecircle labeled “P” to another position or marked location in front ofthe player. The exemplary table 200 has an additional circle, labeled“H”, adjacent to each “P” circle to indicate that a player elected totake a hit. A square, rectangle, line or other marking could also beused to indicate if the player elected to hit or stand.

In localities where the maximum bet, or limit, is set by regulation, thetable 200 may include multiple sets of betting circles to allow playersto make multiple wagers.

Where periodic collections are made by the establishment, the table mayalso have markings, not shown in FIG. 2, indicating where each playershould place the collection amount.

A modified baccarat game may also be played between one or more playerand a computing device in the form of a gaming machine. In this case,the computing device may fulfill the roles of both dealer and banker.

Referring now to FIG. 3, a computing device 300 may consist of aprocessor 310 and a memory 320 coupled to the processor 310. At leastone storage device 330 may be coupled to the processor for the storageof data and instructions. As used herein, a storage device is a devicethat allows for reading and/or writing to a storage medium. Thesestorage media include, for example, magnetic media such as hard disks,floppy disks and tape; optical media such as compact disks (CD-ROM andCD-RW) and digital versatile disks (DVD and DVD±RW); flash memory cards;and other storage media. Storage devices include hard disk drives, DVDdrives, flash memory devices, and others.

Computing device 300 may include a user interface 340 that may be usedby the one or more players to enter wagers and to elect to receive ornot receive a third card when appropriate. The user interface 340 maycommonly be a display panel 350 with a touch-screen data entry device360. The processor 310 may provide display content 355 to the displaypanel 350, and may receive user commands 365 from the touch-screen dataentry device 360. The computing device 300 may include other userinterface devices such as a keyboard, control panel, mouse or otherpointing device, and other data entry devices.

Computing device 300 may include or be coupled to a payment device 370for receiving bets and collections from the at least one player. Thepayment device may be a receptor for coins, bills, chips, or tokens; maybe a financial card reader; or may be some other payment receptionmechanism. Payment device 370 or some other device may be capable ofproviding payouts to the at least one player for winning hands. Payoutsmay be made in the form of cash, chips, tokens, credit against anaccount, script, or some other method.

Computing device 300 may perform the processes and steps attributed tothe dealer and banker in the game described in FIG. 1. Computing device300 may receive any bet and/or collection elected by the player.Computing device 300 may include software to simulate the random dealingof hands. The computing device 300 may receive election to hit or standfrom at least one player via the user interface 340. The computingdevice 300 may evaluate the hands and provide a payout to the player fora winning hand. The computing device 300 may allow a player to bet onmore than one hand simultaneously. The player may play all hands.Alternately, the player may play only one hand and the computing devicemay play the additional hands on behalf of the player usingpredetermined rules.

Computing device 300 may include software and/or hardware for providingfunctionality and features described herein. Computing device 300 maytherefore include one or more logic arrays, memories, analog circuits,digital circuits, software, firmware, and processors such asmicroprocessors, field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), applicationspecific integrated circuits (ASICs), programmable logic devices (PLDs)or programmable logic arrays (PLAs). The hardware and firmwarecomponents of the computing device 300 may include various specializedunits, circuits, software and interfaces for providing the functionalityand features described here. The processes, functionality and featuresmay be embodied in whole or in part in software which operates on aclient computer and may be in the form of firmware, an applicationprogram, an applet (e.g., a Java applet), a browser plug-in, a COMobject, a dynamic linked library (DLL), a script, one or moresubroutines, or an operating system component or service. The hardwareand software and their functions may be distributed such that somecomponents are performed by a client computer and others by otherdevices.

The processes and apparatus described herein may be implemented with anycomputing device. A computing device as used herein refers to any devicewith a processor, memory and a storage device that may executeinstructions including, but not limited to, personal computers, servercomputers, computing tablets, video game systems, telephones, personaldigital assistants (PDAs), portable computers, and laptop computers.These computing devices may run an operating system, including, forexample, variations of the Linux, Unix, MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows, PalmOS, Solaris, Symbian, and Apple Mac OS X operating systems.

The computing device 300 may be implemented as hardware, software,firmware, or a combination thereof. Additional and fewer units, modulesor other arrangement of software, hardware and data structures may beused to achieve the processes and apparatuses described herein.

Closing Comments

The foregoing is merely illustrative and not limiting, having beenpresented by way of example only. Although examples have been shown anddescribed, it will be apparent to those having ordinary skill in the artthat changes, modifications, and/or alterations may be made.

Although many of the examples presented herein involve specificcombinations of method acts or system elements, it should be understoodthat those acts and those elements may be combined in other ways toaccomplish the same objectives. With regard to flowcharts, additionaland fewer steps may be taken, and the steps as shown may be combined orfurther refined to achieve the methods described herein. Acts, elementsand features discussed only in connection with one embodiment are notintended to be excluded from a similar role in other embodiments.

As used herein, “plurality” means two or more.

As used herein, whether in the written description or the claims, theterms “comprising”, “including”, “carrying”, “having”, “containing”,“involving”, and the like are to be understood to be open-ended, i.e.,to mean including but not limited to. Only the transitional phrases“consisting of” and “consisting essentially of”, respectively, areclosed or semi-closed transitional phrases with respect to claims.

Use of ordinal terms such as “first”, “second”, “third”, etc., in theclaims to modify a claim element does not by itself connote anypriority, precedence, or order of one claim element over another or thetemporal order in which acts of a method are performed, but are usedmerely as labels to distinguish one claim element having a certain namefrom another element having a same name (but for use of the ordinalterm) to distinguish the claim elements.

As used herein, “and/or” means that the listed items are alternatives,but the alternatives also include any combination of the listed items.

1. A method of playing a card game involving a dealer and a banker, whomay be the same person or may be one or more computing devices, and atleast one player, the method comprising the steps of: accepting one ormore of a PLAYER wager, a BANKER wager, and a TIE wager from at leastone player dealing a PLAYER hand of two cards face up and a BANKER handof one card face up and one card face down completing the PLAYER hand,completing the PLAYER hand comprising calculating a first sum, moduloten, of the values of the two cards in the PLAYER hand, with a Jack,Queen, or King having a value of zero if the first sum falls within afirst range, dealing a third card to the PLAYER hand if the first sumfalls within a second range, not dealing a third card to the PLAYER handif the first sum falls within a third range, accepting an election toreceive or not receive a third card from each player that placed aPLAYER wager, and dealing a third card to the PLAYER hand if at leastone player elects to receive the third card.
 2. The method of playing acard game of claim 1, wherein the first range is 0-3, the second rangeis 7-9, and the third range is 4-6.
 3. The method of playing a card gameof claim 1, further comprising establishing a value for the PLAYER hand,wherein if the first sum falls within the first range, the value of thePLAYER hand is the sum, modulo 10, of the three cards dealt to thePLAYER hand if the first sum falls within the second range, the value ofthe PLAYER hand is the first sum if the first sum falls within the thirdrange the value of the PLAYER hand is the first sum for players whoelect to not receive a third card and the value of the PLAYER hand isthe sum, modulo 10, of the three cards dealt to the PLAYER hand forplayers who elect to receive a third card.
 4. The method of playing acard game of claim 3, further comprising establishing a value for theBANKER hand, establishing a value for the BANKER hand comprising turningthe card dealt face down to the face up position calculating a secondsum, modulo ten, of the values of the two cards in the BANKER hand, witha Jack, Queen, or King having a value of zero if the second sum fallswithin a fourth range, dealing a third card to the BANKER hand, thevalue of the BANKER hand being the sum, modulo 10, of the three cardsdealt to the BANKER hand if the second sum falls within a fifth range,not dealing a third card to the BANKER hand, the value of the BANKERhand being the second sum.
 5. The method of playing a card game of claim4, wherein fourth range is 0-5 and the fifth range is 6-9.
 6. The methodof playing a card game of claim 4, further comprising settling thewagers accepted from the at least one player.
 7. The method of playing acard game of claims 6, wherein settling the wagers comprises if thevalue of the BANKER hand exceeds the value of the PLAYER hand, thebanker winning PLAYER wagers and TIE wagers, and paying out on BANKERwagers if the value of the PLAYER hand exceeds the value of the BANKERhand, the banker winning BANKER wagers and TIE wagers, and paying out onPLAYER wagers if the value of the PLAYER hand equals the value of theBANKER hand, BANKER wagers and wagers PLAYER wagers receiving no action,and the banker paying out on TIE wagers at predetermined odds.
 8. Themethod of playing a card game of claim 6, wherein settling the wagerscomprises if the value of the BANKER hand exceeds the value of thePLAYER hand, the banker winning PLAYER wagers and TIE wagers, and payingout on BANKER wagers if the value of the PLAYER hand exceeds the valueof the BANKER hand, the banker winning BANKER wagers and TIE wagers, andpaying out on PLAYER if the value of the PLAYER hand equals the value ofthe BANKER hand, BANKER wagers and wagers PLAYER wagers receiving noaction, except the banker winning both PLAYER wagers and BANKER wagersfor at least one value of the BANKER and PLAYER hands, and the bankerpaying out on TIE wagers at predetermined odds.
 9. The method of playinga card game of claim 8, the banker winning both BANKER wagers and PLAYERwagers if the PLAYER and BANKER hands have equal values of zero or one.10. The method of playing a card game of claim 6, wherein the bankerbegins the game with a predetermined stake the settling of wagers beginswith a randomly selected player and proceeds to each subsequent playerin predetermined order until all wagers are settled or until thebanker's stake will not cover any additional wagers.
 11. The method ofplaying a card game of claim 10, wherein the settling of wagers beginswith a player determined by the value of the BANKER hole card.
 12. Amethod of playing a card game involving a dealer and a banker, who maybe the same person, and at least one player, the banker risking a finitestake, the method comprising the steps of: accepting wagers from atleast one player dealing a BANKER hand and one or more player's hands,the BANKER hand including at least a first hole card dealt card facedown settling wagers beginning at a randomly selected player andproceeding to each subsequent player in order until all wagers aresettled or until the stake will not cover any additional wagers whereinthe settling of wagers begins with a player determined by the value ofthe first hole card.
 13. A computing device for playing a modifiedbaccarat game, the computing device comprising: a user input device adisplay device a processor a memory wherein the processor and the memorycomprise circuits and software to perform actions comprising acceptingat least one of a PLAYER wager, a BANKER wager, and a TIE wager from aplayer dealing a PLAYER hand of two cards face up and a BANKER hand ofone card face up and one card face down completing the PLAYER hand,completing the PLAYER hand comprising calculating a first sum, moduloten, of the values of the two cards in the PLAYER hand, with a Jack,Queen, or King having a value of zero if the first sum falls within afirst range, dealing a third card to the PLAYER hand if the first sumfalls within a second range, not dealing a third card to the PLAYER handif the first sum falls within a third range, accepting an election toreceive or not receive a third card if the player placed a PLAYER wager,and dealing a third card to the PLAYER hand if the player elects toreceive the third card.
 14. The computing device for playing a modifiedbaccarat game of claim 13, wherein the first range is 0-3, the secondrange is 7-9, and the third range is 4-6.
 15. The computing device forplaying a modified baccarat game of claim 13, the actions performedfurther comprising establishing a value for the PLAYER hand, wherein ifthe first sum falls within the first range, the value of the PLAYER handis the sum, modulo 10, of the three cards dealt to the PLAYER hand ifthe first sum falls within the second range, the value of the PLAYERhand is the first sum if the first sum falls within the third range thevalue of the PLAYER hand is the first sum if the player elects to notreceive a third card and the value of the PLAYER hand is the sum, modulo10, of the three cards dealt to the PLAYER hand if the player elects toreceive a third card.
 16. The computing device for playing a modifiedbaccarat game of claim 15, the actions performed further comprisingestablishing a value for the BANKER hand, establishing a value for theBANKER hand comprising turning the card dealt face down to the face upposition calculating a second sum, modulo ten, of the values of the twocards in the BANKER hand, with a Jack, Queen, or King having a value ofzero if the second sum falls within a fourth range, dealing a third cardto the BANKER hand, the value of the BANKER hand being the sum, modulo10, of the three cards dealt to the BANKER hand if the second sum fallswithin a fifth range, not dealing a third card to the BANKER hand, thevalue of the BANKER hand being the second sum.
 17. The computing devicefor playing a modified baccarat game of claim 16, wherein fourth rangeis 0-5 and the fifth range is 6-9.
 18. The computing device for playinga modified baccarat game of claim 16, the actions performed furthercomprising settling the wagers accepted from the player.
 19. Thecomputing device for playing a modified baccarat game of claim 18,wherein settling the wagers comprises if the value of the BANKER handexceeds the value of the PLAYER hand, the player losing a PLAYER wageror a TIE wager, and winning a BANKER wager if the value of the PLAYERhand exceeds the value of the BANKER hand, the player losing a BANKERwager or a TIE wager, and winning a PLAYER wager if the value of thePLAYER hand equals the value of the BANKER hand, BANKER wagers andwagers PLAYER wagers receiving no action, and the player winning on aTIE wager at predetermined odds.
 20. The computing device for playing amodified baccarat game of claim 18, wherein settling the wagerscomprises if the value of the BANKER hand exceeds the value of thePLAYER hand, the player losing a PLAYER wager or a TIE wager, andwinning a BANKER wager if the value of the PLAYER hand exceeds the valueof the BANKER hand, the player losing a BANKER wager or a TIE wager, andwinning a PLAYER wager if the value of the PLAYER hand equals the valueof the BANKER hand, BANKER wagers and wagers PLAYER wagers receiving noaction, except the player losing either a PLAYER wager or a BANKER wagerfor at least one value of the BANKER and PLAYER hands, and the playerwinning a TIE wager at predetermined odds.
 21. The computing device forplaying a modified baccarat game of claim 20, the player losing both aBANKER wager and a PLAYER wager if the PLAYER and BANKER hands haveequal values of zero or one.
 22. A method of playing baccarat, themethod comprising the sequential steps of: providing a dealer and abanker, who may be the same person or may be one or more computingdevices accepting one or more of a PLAYER wager, a BANKER wager, and aTIE wager from at least one player P1 dealing a PLAYER hand of two cardsface up and a BANKER hand of one card face up and one card face down ifthe modulo 10 sum of the PLAYER hand is from 0 to 3, dealing a thirdcard to the PLAYER hand if the modulo 10 sum of the PLAYER hand is from4 to 6, allowing each player having made a PLAYER wager an option toreceive a third card or to not receive a third card for the PLAYER handif the modulo 10 sum of the PLAYER hand is from 7 to 9, not dealing athird card to the PLAYER hand if the modulo 10 sum of the BANKER hand ishand is from 0 to 5, dealing a third card to the BANKER hand if themodulo 10 sum of the BANKER hand is from 6 to 9, not dealing a thirdcard to the BANKER hand settling wagers according to a predetermined setof rules.
 23. The method of playing a card game of claim 22, wherein thesettling of wagers begins with a player determined by the value of thecard dealt face down to the BANKER hand.